Canadian women's basketball team tips off training camp in Edmonton

Just six weeks after assembling for the first time in Edmonton, the Canadian senior women’s basketball team is back in town.

Of course, they’re not here on vacation. This is more of a business trip, and they got to work right away Thursday night, as they opened their latest camp at the Saville Community Sports Centre, their new training home.

Team Canada will practice daily through Monday, as they get ready for next month’s FIBA Americas Championship for Women in Xalapa, Mexico. Following camp, they head for Brazil to play Argentina, Brazil and Puerto Rico, in what will be their final games before Americas.

“We’re getting down to crunch time,” said head coach Lisa Thomaiadis, who has several things she’d like to see the team accomplish in its relatively quick five-day camp.

“We definitely want to put in a few different looks offensively to be a little bit less predictable. Defensively, we’re still shoring things up to be a top-notch defensive team in the world.”

The top three teams at the Americas Championship, which takes place Sept. 21 – 28, qualify for the 2014 World Championships next summer in Turkey. Canada has finished outside the top three only three times out of the 10 Americas Championships, and is coming off consecutive bronze medals in 2009 and 2011.

While there are 17 players on Canada’s roster, only 12 will make the final cut and travel to Mexico.

“We’ve got lots of young kids, every time they come to camp they’re getting better and better,” said Thomaidis. “The improvement we’ve seen has been phenomenal.”

Basketball Canada announced a multi-year agreement in the spring that will see the women’s national team make the Saville its home training base. They first practiced in Edmonton at the end of June before traveling to China, where they competed in the Four Nations tournament, posting a 4-2 in a series of games against the host Chinese, Puerto Rico, and Brazil.

Earlier in the season, they posted a 5-3 record on an European exhibition tour that included games against the Czech Republic, France, Montenegro, Spain, Spain, Turkey and Italy.

Different rosters are being used for each of Canada’s overseas trips.

“It’s really neat because we have a training group of 16 or 17 but it’s still like one team,” said veteran forward Lizanne Murphy, who was part of the China trip, but did not go to Europe. “We have a lot of great personalities, and everyone just wants to make Canada better, so it’s really fun to be a part of that where there’s no change to the indentify of our team even if a few players switch around.”

The women’s national team will return to Edmonton in September for one final training camp before Americas. This week’s sessions at the Saville are open to the public. Friday will see Team Canada take shoot-around from 9:15 a.m. – 10:15 a.m., with full practice scheduled for 5:15 p.m.-7:15pm.